


Old Acquaintance

by Muffinworry



Category: Don't Hug Me I'm Scared (Short Film)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-03
Updated: 2016-01-03
Packaged: 2018-05-11 12:24:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5626564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Muffinworry/pseuds/Muffinworry
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A drabble for New Year's</p>
            </blockquote>





	Old Acquaintance

***

It’s one of those questions Harry has grown to hate.

“What are you doing for New Years?”

“Oh, just a quiet night at home,” he lies. Wishful thinking. At least Manny is safely out of the way, at a friend’s house for the night. Harry and Robin are on babysitting detail.

They’d flipped a coin for who got to work late, and Harry had won. At four o’clock, he reluctantly shuts down his computer and grabs his coat. The bus home is full of smiles; cheerful partygoers chattering about their plans, hurrying home to change before meeting friends and loved ones.

Harry turns up his music and closes his eyes.

As he walks up the drive, the door opens, and an exhausted looking Robin stands there.

“Did you get it? Did you get my text?”

“What? Shit, no.” Harry pulls out his phone. Three frantic messages asking him to get more booze on the way home. “Oh no, Robin, I’m sorry.”

Robin rubs his eyes. “It’s okay, I think the store on Fifth is still open. I’ll drive over now.”

“Is it bad?”

Robin looks at Harry. His mouth twists, and he shakes his head. Robin grabs his keys and walks quickly to the car, and then Harry is left alone in the house to deal with them.

He starts to wonder where they are, then a piercing voice calls down the stairs.

“Robin! Robin, we’re thirst-oh! Oh hello Harry dear! Happy New Year!”

“Robin went to get some more drinks,” mumbles Harry, hanging up his coat and heading for the kitchen with a sigh.

“Oooh!”

“Paige! Paige! Get back here, it’s midnight in Karachi!”

“Oooh!”

Harry sighs as he looks around the kitchen. He still doesn’t know exactly how their physiology works, but from the number of empty bottles strewn around, he’d better get some solid food in them soon. Last year – he shudders as he remembers the sirens and the bloodstains.

Robin comes back with three full bags from the liquor store. Twenty minutes later, Harry’s made some quick pasta for all of them. When he calls them, a glass shatters, and their monsters come staggering downstairs.

“They started before dawn,” Robin hisses. “Something about New Year’s getting started in the South Pacific.”

Dinner is Tony waving his knife and fork erratically while lecturing them all about the history of time zones. Paige keeps giggling and filling his glass whenever he drains it, which is often.

Afterwards, she gets to her feet, wobbling slightly. “Come on,” she tells him affectionately. “I want to steal some fireworks.”

“Mmm,” Tony replies. “It’s New Year’s in Tallinn in three – two – ” He pulls Paige closer and kisses her deeply, then stands up. “Right. Fire – fireworks.”

He has to try to stop them. Harry coughs diffidently. “Are you-” Two heads pivot towards him and he flinches. “Are you sure you want to go out?”

They grin at him, flushed and glittering with malice. Harry looks down quickly.

As they lurch out of the house, arms around each other, Tony’s voice floats back. “I don’t even like fire…”

Harry turns to Robin.

“What did you get them?”

“The store was sold out of almost everything. I just grabbed the strongest stuff I could find.”

“Well I think they just mixed it all together.”

“I’m not going to be here in the morning, that’s for sure. I don’t know if they can get hangovers, but I don’t want to be anywhere around in the next twenty-four hours.”

***

The problem with living with monsters – one of many, many problems, Harry thinks – is that every little noise wakes him up. So when he hears the front door creak open shortly before dawn, he shivers under his blankets, praying they won’t bother him.

Two pairs of footsteps tread slowly up the stairs. Their voices are softer than usual and Harry freezes, trying to make out the words.

“- saw him when you took that –”

“-away in the crowd. That’s the problem with-”

“-always next year.”

“Babylon though.”

“Mm, yes. They knew how to throw a party.”

“Eighteenth century France. I fought three duels in one night and woke up in a burning palace.”

“Venice.”

“Oh, the best. The masquerades. The candles on the water. The way your gown just pulled you right under the surface.”

“Bastard.”

“Shh, it’s almost the last midnight of the year.”

“I swear, if you weren’t such a good kisser, I’d-”

After a long pause, Harry hears Paige speak again, very quietly.

“So many New Years.”

“The whole world counting down together. There’s nothing like it.”

“Tony, I’m too sleepy to dance.”

“Stand on my feet. There.”

“You’re my best friend, you know that?”

“Happy New Year, love.”

“Happy New Year.”


End file.
